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Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Sating a Ravenous Appetite

With Nancy Killefer and Tom Daschle being the latest casualties of those members of the Obama team afflicted with tax woes, Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, asks: "Do any of these people pay taxes?" The answer is: of course not, not if they can help it; they're no different from the rest of us except they usually get away with it. "These people" also differ from us in that they and their colleagues on the left pretend to believe the lie there are hordes of rich fools out there who will pay taxes, no matter what the rates.

No so. The higher the tax rates, the greater the lengths people go, liberal or conservative, to avoid paying them. Remember that when you hear, as our economy continues to tank, that old familiar chorus and canard, "we're just asking the the rich to pay their fair share." Without asking the obvious question what is that "fair share," be assured, whatever it is, it won't be paid. The rich and well-connected either use loopholes to avoid taxes or, if the loopholes are closed (fat chance), simply ensure they earn less; how stupid do you have to be to make pots of money you can't keep?

The vast increase in government expenditures of the past decade, just gone into overdrive with the present administration, will still have to be paid for and will be, either by borrowing from the Chinese and the Arabs (so long as they still want to hold our notes), requiring future generations pay them off (via higher taxes, of course) or by raising taxes now, to be paid by the middle-class, i.e. those not well connected or not enjoying the luxury of not having to work. Barack Obama knows that, Treasure Secretary Geithner know that; so does Nancy Peolosi, as do those members of Congress no more dimwitted than she.